EL DORADO, Kan.— Buhler baseball stretched its win streak against El Dorado to 11 games on Monday with a pair of road wins at McDonald Stadium. Now 7-3 on the season, the Crusaders host Clay Center for the first of three straight home dates on Friday at 4:00 in Wheatland Park.
GAME ONE: Buhler 1, El Dorado 0
Game one produced a brilliant pitcher’s duel between Buhler’s Brayden Henry and El Dorado’s Easton Perkins. Henry tossed 8⅓ innings of one-hit ball, striking out 12. In seven innings of work, Perkins held Buhler to just three hits and struck out seven. Neither earned the decision.
In total, the contest went 10 innings, lasted two hours and 36 minutes, and resulted in a 1-0 Buhler victory. Appropriately, it was Henry who drove in that lone run on a two-out bloop single to center field that scored Mitchel McDaniel from second base.
Luke Holmberg picked up the win, like Henry, allowing just one Wildcat hit over his 1⅔ innings in relief.
GAME TWO: Buhler 5, El Dorado 1
Though both offenses had multiple opportunities in game two, neither was able to scratch across a run going into the fifth inning.
Buhler finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fifth on a Cash Carson single to center field that drove in Asher Zachary from second base. Carson finished the game 2-4 with two runs batted in.
The Crusaders plated four more runs in the seventh, one of those on a Carson double that scored McCade Zachary. That was Buhler’s lone hit in the inning with the other three runs coming across unearned.
El Dorado’s only run scored came in the bottom of the sixth against starting pitcher Asher Zachary. He tossed six innings, allowing one run on two hits to earn his third win of the season.
SOFTBALL
Buhler softball is 7-3, its best start to a season in more than a decade, following Monday’s double-header sweep at El Dorado.
Buhler smashed eight hits and scored 10 runs in the first half inning of play to bust open game one. The Crusaders won 12-0 in five innings.
Izy Schmidt and Maddie Stallman each collected three hits in the game. Schmidt produced two doubles and drove in three runs. Stallman recorded a double and a triple and two runs batted in.
Buhler sprinkled runs in five of the seven innings in game two, winning 9-3.
The big inning was the four-run fifth. Sidney Quint drove in three of those runs on a line drive double to center field. On the season, Quint leads the Crusaders in hits with 19 and RBIs with 14.
Opposite of baseball, softball is on the road Friday at Clay Center. Game of a double-header begins at 4:30.
